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Friday, December 28, 2012

Rag Quilts and More!

I hope everybody had a fabulous Christmas! We sure did here! I think it was the year of the sentimental. As some of you might remember, I did the framed scrapbook pages of the USS Coolidge as a gift to my brother (our father was on the ship when it hit a mine in WWII...he was fine). Guess what I got from my brother and his family! A scrapbook and disc full of old family photos. I only had a few as my Dad moved to NC, where my brother lives, after my Mom passed. He took the box of photos with him. I had just one album with a few photos that was left here. My niece got busy and copied, repaired and saved them to disc for me. She also made a scrapbook with some of the photos. I don't know how she found the time! She had twin boys last February and has three other children under eight. I guess it helps to be young! LOL! I can not express how thrilled and grateful I am to have those photos!

I did a lot of handmade items as gifts this year. I knitted eight of those fun ruffle scarves and six of the moebius scarves. Of course, I didn't start until late October to do this. Story of my life...just call me "Last Minute Suzie". LOL! I'm so excited to show you the quilts I made. I've been dying to show them but I wasn't sure who might accidentally see them.

I did one for my sister in law, one for the niece who did the photos and one for our daughter. They were a huge hit. Turns out my niece has a ton of flag decorations. In looking at some FB pictures right after I finished them, I noticed she had valances that were a flag fabric, so it fit right in.

I had fully intended to put the 50 stars on the quilts. I took out my Cricut®, changed the mat and blade, starched the heck out of the fabric and ironed it to freezer paper. I couldn't get the stars to cut to save my soul! In looking online it said to iron the fabric to Heat and Bond. I didn't want to do that as it would make it so the stars wouldn't fray. So, instead, I hand cut the stars using the card stock cut from the Cricut®. I could handle cutting 39 stars by hand, but not 150! LOL!

I had originally seen it on Pinterest (where else? LOL).

Wash all fabrics until there is no longer any color run. That is the most important thing I can stress! I had a friend do a quilt and while she thought she had gotten all the dye out, when she washed to make it rag, the blue still ran. I felt so sorry for her!

If you are unfamiliar with rag quilts, they are put together so that all the seams are exposed on the top. You'll find lots of You Tube videos if you need more info.

Each of the stripes was cut 3" wide by 40" long. You'll need seven red and six off-white (or white if you prefer). You will also need thirteen 3" x 40" strips of flannel for the batting and the same of unbleached (or bleached if you prefer the lighter color) muslin for the back. I used a 1/2" seam allowance, so you're finished stripes will be 2" wide. I put all my stripes together, and then cut the spot for the blue fabric. This way, I could be sure it was going to fit correctly. The blue fabric, flannel batting and the unbleached muslin were cut to 16". Laying the blue fabric on the stripes I marked where to cut for the blue piece to fit.

Using my Cricut ®, I cut a 1 1/2" star to use for a pattern. After cutting all of the stars I pinned them to the blue in the circle. I used one of my Pfaltzgraff dinner plates putting the stars around it so they looked even. Stitch your stars to the blue. Then stitch the blue fabric, flannel and muslin in the spot that you have cut out.

I then took the stripes that I had cut out for the blue section and made them into a pillow. I found a color book star pattern online and enlarged it, then stitched it to the front of the pillow.

Now comes the cutting to make it rag. You will definitely want to get a set of Rag Quilt Scissors.

These are spring loaded which makes the cutting easier. I got my at Joann's fabric with a coupon. Make cuts on all the exposed edges about 1/4" apart. Be careful not to cut through your seams. Then you'll want to wash it and dry it a couple of times to make the edges fray. Take it outside and shake it between each wash and dry. I took mine to the laundromat as I didn't want to take a chance of clogging up my washer or dryer with lint. I also tossed in a couple of the Shout Color Catcher sheets just for good measure. :)